Tag Archives: Avocado

Sweet Potato Quinoa Cakes

These little beauties are so delicious! Not only are they delicious and sweet but they are paleo, gluten free and vegan too. I’m all for eating healthy but I’m also all for delicious food. Clearly, you can have both. They are filling and full of protein from the quinoa.

As soon as I stumbled across this recipe, I knew I had to make them. I made a couple of changes to suit my tastes and they came out amaze-balls!

These were really easy to put together. Make the quinoa while microwaving the sweet potatoes, then mix everything all together, form into patties, bake and done.I had mine with a dollop of a deliciously creamy avocado lime dressing but you could use regular guacamole or plain because they are super tasty and delicious on their own.

Carefully poke lots of holes with a knife in the sweet potatoes, place on a microwave safe plate and microwave for 10 minutes. Turn over and cook for another 10 minutes. Use your knife to determine if the sweet potatoes are cooked thoroughly. They should be nice and soft. If they are not quite done yet, turn them over again and cook for an additional 3 minutes at a time until they are done.

While the sweet potatoes are cooking, prepare your quinoa. Combine quinoa and vegetable broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover, cook for 15 - 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until all of the liquid is cooked away and absorbed by the quinoa.

Remove skin and place cooked sweet potatoes in a large bowl. Use a fork to mash potatoes against sides of bowl until only small chunks of potato appear. Stir in quinoa, scallions, garlic, salt and cumin, stirring to thoroughly combine ingredients.

Bake for 15 minutes. Turn over, brush with olive oil and bake for another 15 minutes.

AVOCADO LIME DRESSING:

Combine all ingredients in a blender, I used my Nutribullet. Blend until combined. I left mine a little chunky just because that's my preference but you can blend it until it's super creamy if that's what you like.

Creamy Garlic Avocado Cauliflower Mash

We are still here in gorgeous South Dakota. Yesterday we went to Mount Rushmore and marveled at this piece of Americana. Pictures definitely don’t do it justice.

Then we went on some gorgeous nature drives through Custer State Park. We stopped off at the grocery store first to and pick up a bag of apples and carrots because we were told there would be wild burros that we could feed. What we didn’t like is that we were told that people feed them crackers and cookies. CRACKERS AND COOKIES? Well we couldn’t have that so we got them some healthy snacks. Of course we did 🙂

Happy Burros 🙂

After a long day of seeing incredible views we were hungry. We stopped off in a little town called Keystone, SD. I really wanted to find something to eat that I couldn’t find at home and I did. (I apologize in advance to the vegan/vegetarian souls.) I had bison ribs. If I do eat meat, I choose bison because it is very lean and has a lot less fat. Of course I was offered the typical potato side dish and bread of which I turned both down. But, this recipe for Creamy Garlic Avocado Cauliflower Mash would have gone PERFECT. It’s a healthy comfort food side!

I do love mashed potatoes but don’t love the actual potato so much. Not because they aren’t delicious but I don’t love the starch content and that they metabolize as sugar in the gut. They are high on the glycemic index which is the method in which to measure how certain foods spike blood sugar and insulin levels.

But you don’t need to give up the creamy garlic mashed potato flavor. Simple substitutions make all the difference in terms of creating a healthy side that is gluten free, full of fiber, protein, good fats, low-calorie and low in carbs.

Since cheese isn’t included on the paleo or vegan diet, you can omit the cheese or use nutritional yeast instead and make this true paleo and vegan.

Rich and Delicious Dairy-Free Chocolate Pudding

If I served you this pudding you would be telling me how yummy, creamy and chocolaty it is in between mouthfuls. Then when I told you what the magic ingredient is you might unfriend me for lying to you. But I swear it’s the truth.

Want to know? Keep reading only if you promise not to call me a liar.

AVOCADO! Seriously, AVOCADO!

When I first read the ingredients I honestly was going to make it expecting to say “do not fall for this”.

But gosh darnit to all heck, this was SO good! Excuse my language. It’s rich, chocolaty, dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo and vegan optional – if you are into that sort of thing. Quick and easy to make so why not just give it a try.

Gluten Free Avocado Fries

I love love love avocados and can never find enough ways to incorporate them into my diet. Not only are they rich and creamy but they can be used as a substitute for eggs in baking, as a great substitute for mayo in dips, great in pretty much any lettuce wrap, etc.

Let’s not forget the nutritional goodness of the avocado. Did you know that the avocado has nearly 20 beneficial vitamins and nutrients. It is also full of good fats.

I used gluten free panko crumbs but you can make your own by crushing gluten-free corn flakes (a little tip from my good friend Tracy). Plus you can use any spices you prefer in the almond meal/flour mixture. Make em spicy, make em sweeter, it’s up to you.

I dipped mine in a ranch flavored greek yogurt dip but a nice lemon dressing or chipotle would be great too. If you serve these for a party, offer a variety of dips for everyone’s tastes.